Starfall
by VanillaSpiders
Summary: Danny Fenton has little to his past, with the exception of a boring ring and a strange, if helpful and loyal older man named Vlad. But there's more to Vlad than he's letting on, and it seems there's more to Danny as well. Now if Danny can just find out the answer before he's annihilated by the ghosts hunting him, then he'll be in good shape. And the world might not end. pompous pep


**Yo I have no idea what I'm doing but this is the first pompous pep thing I've ever done, and it's a AU to boot. Here goes something. **

_**Chapter 1**_

Danny Fenton woke up one morning, and was startled out of bed by someone pounding on the other side of the door. His sleepy brain panicked and apparently forgot about the use of any of his limbs for a split second. He landed with a crash of limbs and clothes and the comforter, which had tangled round his legs.

"HEY FEN-TURD, IT'S TIME TO GET UP! Dad says if you're sleeping in you're toast this time, you hear? You've got a lot of work this morning to do before lunch you little shrimp!"

"I'm up! Dash, Dash I said I'm up you can stop hitting on the door!" The boy called up from the floor.

The pounding did stop then, and that surprised Danny. Dash never listened to him. Usually he retaliated worse in fact. Danny was so focused on freeing himself and trying to look where his boots had gone that he didn't hear the conversation that had started in the hall. He also didn't hear the lower, decidedly deadly tone that ended said conversation and caused Dash to leave.

What Danny did notice, was when the knob turned and the door creaked open gently and a tall thin man stepped into the room.

"Really Daniel, again? The second time this month…I thought you set your alarm." The man commented smoothly. He was already dressed for the day in the clothes of a stable worker, long silver hair pulled back out of his face in a way that shouldn't have been as handsome as it was.

Danny went scarlet at the gentle chiding and made more clumsy attempts to get up, get dressed and still look for his boots. He really wasn't a good multitasker at all.

"Vlad! Ah-I did!" He managed to say firmly. "I just, I left the window open, and I guess the temperature dropped or something because, uh…" He had scrambled up by then and was glancing sheepishly over the small bed to look at the clock sitting on his dresser.

"…I guess the frost got to it again." The boy mumbled shyly, rubbing an arm.

Vlad sighed and shook his head, but smiled wanly when Danny glanced blue eyes over to him.

"Hurry down and get breakfast before that oaf eats the plates too. I will make your bed, Little Badger." The man instructed. He bent down and reached behind the door, pulling out Danny's missing boot. He held it up and raised an eyebrow, and Danny blinked.

"How did—wait nevermind, really?"

"That idiot was right, there is more work than usual to be done today. They've over booked the lessons and you need to get the horses ready along with your usual chores. Now, hurry, you'll need all the strength you can get."

Danny nodded as he sat on the bed, pulling on his socks.

"Sweet, thanks Vlad!" Danny light up like the summer sun coming in through his window. He shot by the man, pulling on his shirt and grabbing his boot. He'd hop down the stairs of the farm house and into the kitchen like that, Vlad knew. He decided against watching, for fear of giving himself a heart attack.

But then, that was nothing new. Daniel had that effect on him.

As Danny scrambled downstairs to make it in time for breakfast, the silver haired man did as he'd said, closing the door before doing so though. He smoothed the worm comforter down and finally picked up the alarm on the little wooden bedside table.

It was ice cold to the touch. A thin sheen of frost coated its side and had no doubt gotten into the backing. Vlad held it to his ear, and shook it. No gears could be heard, no life at all. But there was a problem with Danny's simple assumption. The chill was covering the side that faced the boy's bed, right by his pillow where his head lay at night.

"Yes, you were right Your Highness." Vlad spoke softly to himself as he shook his head.

"The frost did indeed get to it. And you. This isn't good at all." The man sighed heavily and took the clock with him to dispose of. No one else could see this.

A part of Vlad had hoped this day wouldn't come. The other part was relived it did, and all of him was equally apprehensive about it.

**OOO**

Danny meanwhile, had only managed to get an egg, a piece of bacon and thankfully a slice of toast at the breakfast table. Still, he couldn't complain, because it was good food and Mrs. Baxter was an amazing cook and a kinder woman than the rest of the family she belonged to. Well, Mr. Baxter wasn't the worst, he supposed. There were meaner bosses, and anyway the Baxter family was giving him and Vlad board in exchange for running the stable they owned.

"Get along boy, we've got lessons coming at ten, eleven and twelve thirty, after lunch." Mr. Baxter started the second Danny's boots hit the linoleum.

"Yessir." Danny nodded listening to the words and committing which horses he had to get ready.

"And keep that dog out of the arena, or it's off to the pound with it."

Danny blushed when the reprimand came, biting his lip and nodding. Cujo, the mangy German shepherd that Danny had found one day in the back field when he was fixing a fence. Smart as a whip but playful as a puppy, Danny sometimes had the strange feeling the dog had been looking for him but that was impossible, wasn't it? Either way, he'd been unable to shake the dog, and any attempts to send it away caused it to come back, and no one answered the Lost Dog ad Dash had desperately put up in hopes to get the mutt out of the barn.

"Oh, you know that dog's been a great help with the rats since he showed up, honey." Mrs. Baxter walked over from the stove at that moment, an older woman who loved her family but understood her husband's want for business and her son's attitude.

"Besides dear, its Danny's dog and it keeps finding its way back to him every time." Mrs. Baxter was the kind of person Danny hoped his mother had been like, if he had one. She was the only one in the family who didn't make him feel like a complete waste of space. Sometimes thought she had a secret smile in the corner of her mouth that made Danny think she knew something no one else did, except maybe Vlad.

Mr. Baxter grunted and went back to his own breakfast.

At that point Mrs. Baxter set some jam down before him for his toast, and Danny thanked her. He nibbled on his toast as Dash and his father talked about last night spots game they'd caught on tv, and Danny thought. He thought about the work he had to do today, the cleaning and grooming and mucking.

He thought for a moment about a dream he'd had last night. He could almost remember it for once, but it was thick beyond the fog of sleep and distraction. Even closing his eyes wouldn't get the dream back. They slipped through his fingers like fish and darted every attempt he made to imagine them. Though if Danny was going to be truly honest sometimes those dreams felt more like a memory. But on the other hand, there was no one that was possible, he'd never lived in a castle and he certainly never had anyone other than Vlad as his friend. He didn't know any of the faces in his dreams, even if they were getting more and more frequent lately.

There was always Vlad though.

Vlad Masters, who'd taken care of him, brought him to the stables where he was manager and had coaxed the Baxters into giving him a job. And if Danny takes a moment longer, he can think back to when he woke up in the hospital, in a white sterile room where he met the silver-haired man and who'd spoken to him soothingly, promised he was fine. Told him his name and filled in the blanks that he could of Danny's memory.

Despite the uncertainty of his past and the many questions he had circling around in his mind; Danny had lived at the Baxter stables for almost three months already. Besides, like Vlad had said in the beginning, to answers Danny's questions about where his family was, if he had any, or where his home was, would take time and money. Money that they simply did not have, Danny knew. So he tried to be grateful, and worked at the stable the best he could. Vlad's presence was a constant source of comfort for the boy, and it helped, even if he did cause some curious butterflies in his stomach Danny was dutifully trying to ignore.

Danny had after some trepidation decided to trust him. Besides Vlad's words and the ring on the chain around his neck, he had nothing else.

Right, that ring…

Danny finished his orange juice and collected his plates and utensils, taking them to the sink. Mrs. Baxter said he didn't have to do them, but smiled warmly at him and called him a gentlemen when he did anyway. This morning as he was drying his fork he took a moment to reach his hand down the front of his shirt and pull the chain up until the small band appeared from between his chest and shirt.

Still cold. It was always cold, like ice, no matter how tight Danny grasped it in his warm hands or how long he kept it against his heartbeat. Aside from the temperature it was just fake gold, Danny had been told. He'd asked Vlad about it but for once the man hadn't been able to give him an answer, but asked him to hang on to it.

'_I found it with you, little badger, in the woods. I'd hang on to it if I were you…it could be important.' _

Danny recalled the words and shook his head, sighing.

No, it was probably just costume jewelry.

Nothing about him was important, after all.


End file.
